


Destroying Enemies

by Daegaer



Series: Mars Assassins [4]
Category: Weiß Kreuz
Genre: Assassins & Hitmen, Friendship, M/M, Male Friendship, Psychic Abilities, Victorian Attitudes, Victorian Science Fiction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-14
Updated: 2014-03-14
Packaged: 2018-01-23 18:56:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1576016
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Daegaer/pseuds/Daegaer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Reunited, Schwarz consider the question of allies.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Destroying Enemies

**Author's Note:**

  * For [indelicateink](https://archiveofourown.org/users/indelicateink/gifts).



> A sequel to [And Never Brought to Mind](http://archiveofourown.org/works/340665), originally written for Indelicateink's [Rosenkreuz Challenge](http://indelicateink.livejournal.com/354733.html).

_Paris, 1881_

Nagi lay curled in well-fed comfort upon the soft cushions of the _chaise longue_ , his head upon Schuldig's shoulder, his boyish frame encircled within the grasp of that young man's arm. It was, he felt, extremely good to be back once more with his friends after all he had had to endure at the hands of Andersson and Williams, those women turned from the natural soft kindnesses of the female sex by the rigors of Schloß Rosenkreuz.

"No boy should be made keep company with women," said Schuldig, in a manner that showed the mind reader felt they had been in conversation and he was but agreeing with a point Nagi had made. "Why, they would turn one quite queer. You are safe from such harpies now, Nagi!"

"I'm so glad," said Nagi, sleepily burrowing against Schuldig. "I didn't like being with them very much – although I tried as hard as I might to learn from Andersson, Crawford! I thought that would please you."

"That was sensible," said Crawford, regarding them both fondly from the armchair to which he had withdrawn to preserve his dignity, Schuldig having earlier shown signs of wishing to draw both him and Nagi into a tangle upon the _chaise longue_. "I'm glad they didn't hurt you – of course, it would not have been rational for Andersson to do so, and she was always an intelligent girl when I knew her in previous times."

"They did slap me a few times," said Nagi.

"Ha, such things don't count in the Schloß," said Farfarello, stretching like a wicked cat in his chair. "You count as unharmed."

"Galling, but true," smiled Schuldig, "Take some pleasure in the fact that I gave their little friend a few slaps as well." He sniggered, adding, "Do you know, I believe no one had ever hit the little chit before? You should have seen her expression!"

"Everyone has such simple pleasures and yet I cannot have five minutes to myself in a church," said Farfarello in tones of mock sadness, making Nagi giggle. "Here, Schuldig, leave off petting the lad like that for a while, would you?"

"Why?" said Schuldig in suspicion, his eyes narrowing.

"Because," said Farfarello, "maybe someone else would like a go." He stood quickly and pulled the surprised Nagi up from Schuldig's arms into an awkward and quick embrace, as if emotion had, as it were, overcome his habitual evenness of temperament. "It's good to have you back," he said, tousling the lad's hair roughly.

"Oh, Farfarello," cried Nagi, clinging to him, "I missed you as well!"

"Are you going to cry?" thought Schuldig in bright, silent malice within Farfarello's mind, matching the amusement of this thought with the wide grin upon his narrow, scarred face.

"I shall leave the weeping to you," thought Farfarello, as he disentangled himself from Nagi. "I know you have practiced before a mirror so that it doesn't spoil your delicate looks."

"You are all so _nice_ ," said Nagi. "To think that Andersson and Williams did not understand why I should love you!"

" _Women_ ," said Schuldig with genial contempt, holding out his arms for Nagi once more. "Such silly creatures!"

"Let us be fair," said Crawford, ignoring the noise Schuldig made at such a suggestion, "none of us had childhoods that would lead us to suppose a boy that might find his adult companions to excite anything but fear and loathing." He took off his spectacles to polish them, adding, "No student of the Schloß could have understood friendship as a child, Nagi."

"No one had friends there," said Farfarello in agreement.

"But is that quite true?" asked Schuldig slowly, as if he did not really wish the words to escape his lips. "Was it not because friendship could not be fully extinguished within your breast, Crawford, that you were susceptible to the traps laid by Micah?"

"Say rather I have learnt since leaving the Schloß the value of friendship," said Crawford. "What were those we called 'friend' within its walls but those we had forced into our service?"

"Is that why Williams hurried from England to France, to warn a woman in whose service she had been as a girl of our presence?" said Schuldig. "We were not gentle with her, Crawford, and she could have taken her little Maria and run far – but she ran back at us. And you said yourself that Andersson and you were friends of a sort, in your youth."

"Of a sort," said Crawford drily. "You need have no worries on that score, Schuldig."

"I am not seeking," said Schuldig in affronted dignity, as Nagi looked up at his shift in mood, " _reassurance_. I merely point out that those devils were not as thorough as they might have wished in stamping out all the weaknesses of the common herd, and even those of us _lucky_ enough to have been schooled in the Schloß remained tainted by affections." He crossed his arms sulkily and scowled at them all. "Although as you think me so silly, I feel little affection for any of you, I assure you."

"I don't think you're silly," said Nagi, attempting to insinuate himself beneath Schuldig's arm once more. "I'm sure you must have had lots of friends, Schuldig."

"What a sensible boy you are!" said Schuldig. "I have quite reinstated you in my love. There wasn't a single boy in the entire Schloß who could resist me, I was such a charming, gay lad."

"What are you playing at?" thought Farfarello, "Look, you have made Crawford think about his damn brother."

"I know what I am doing," answered Schuldig in like, silent communication. "Nagi, be a good boy and go over to Crawford – let him see how happy you are to be back with us."

Nagi at once uncurled himself from the _chaise longue_ and flung himself upon Crawford, whose supernatural ability and long knowledge of Nagi barely sufficed to allow him to raise his arms to receive the boy in an embrace that prevented them both from being tipped bodily out of the chair.

"Nagi, you are a little old for such displays," said Crawford in mild remonstrance.

"Please," Nagi said, changing all at once what he had meant to say, "don't give me away again." With some daring, he thought hard of how scared he had been, and how much he had wished for Crawford to come to save him, how he had tried to be brave, for that was what Crawford would have wanted – then, in a moment of almost disbelief and jubilation he felt the, as it were, grey fog of sadness that had seemed to suddenly wash over Crawford dissipate, to be replaced by the fiercer feelings of a man who wishes to protect what is his, as Crawford's arms tightened about him.

"No," said Crawford, "I won't." And then, much more quietly, so that no one else could hear, he whispered, "I regret it, Nagi."

Nagi smiled brilliantly, feeling joy suffuse himself, and grinned over at his other two friends, pleased to have raised Crawford's spirits so. He quailed a little under Schuldig's steady gaze and raised eyebrows.

"We _shall_ discuss this," said Schuldig into his mind, continuing then aloud, "Even sullen, ape-like children such as yourself, Farfarello, must have had some friends!"

"I suppose there were boys I felt no particular desire to maim or kill," mused Farfarello.

"Scherer, my lieutenant, was always loyal to me, I cannot deny that," said Crawford. "From the time we were both barely twelve until we were sent out he fought by me and for me – and wanted to be assigned with me." He frowned, adding, "If I had a friend, I suppose it was Franz Scherer. I half-thought at first, when they said they would finally give me a mind reader, that I would see him again."

"Cheer up, at least you got a _real_ mind reader," said Schuldig. 

"Well, it hardly matters," said Farfarello. "We've seen Crawford's old allies cut and run, and any other boyhood friend will be the same."

"Are you an oracle now?" asked Schuldig. "Pah!" he ejaculated, "must I do everything? Crawford, let us speak frankly – Nagi, cover your ears – you are the stubbornest man in all the worlds. You are set on this course of action, and you will pull us all along to perdition with you because you want revenge. You want revenge for being ripped from your family, you want revenge for having been given the capacity to acknowledge Micah as your brother and for losing him again. For all I know, you want revenge for the Union beating the d----d Confederacy."

"I really do not care about American politics," interjected Crawford. "And all I want is for us to be allowed to live our lives with interference."

Schuldig flung himself fully back upon the cushions with an expression of disgust upon his face. "I find it incomprehensible," he cried, "that after so long you, of all people, should be the men who seem to find it so hard to understand that I can read your d----d minds!" Taking a deep breath he continued, "If you will continue with this madness, Crawford, then admit this is not something of full rationality – no, no, do not interrupt, hear me out – I do not think we can succeed in this alone, we need allies. But we have made a bad start there – we have scared those women, Crawford – understandable of course, given the natural frailty of mind possessed by the female sex, but regrettable nonetheless. We run the risk of scaring off future potential allies as well, and sooner rather than later, we will all be dead."

"We will be able to approach other possibilities more carefully," said Crawford, "and explain ourselves properly, with greater time for preparation."

"No," said Schuldig. "Forget rationality. You will lay out all the rational reasons for going against our masters, and they will smile and say, "Why, how interesting, Crawford," and then they will consider it _rationally_ and will either send telegrams to the Schloß before our backs have turned, or will run to the other side of the world. We must forego reason, and think as we did when we were children, and we did stupid things because we wished to seem heroic, or to prove a point. We must appeal to their affections, and make them remember they were our friends, or make them our friends now."

"Schuldig," said Farfarello, "As men, people will look back on their boyhoods dealings with you with suspicion - no one will trust their affections once they realize we have in our company a mind reader of any strength, let alone a nameless mind reader."

"We have also," said Schuldig with a smile, "Nagi. Anyway, I was thinking we would be truthful and not dissimulate."

Crawford laughed shortly, shaking his head. "You have surprised me, which is always welcome. In this era of truth, what is it you hope for? Your family restored to you? Your name?"

Schuldig shook his head, looking uneasy. "Not at all. Those claws are too deep; don't try to rip them out, Crawford. You'll have to just love me for what I am now." He breathed in deeply and was quite his gay self once more, saying, "I shall have to give you all a lesson in brotherly love and friendship I can see. That list of people sent out from the Schloß, Crawford, that Andersson gave you. Are there any Belgians called Fournier upon it?"

**Author's Note:**

> _“Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?”_
> 
>  
> 
> \-- Abraham Lincoln


End file.
